Chapter 11

It was not attractive, but we managed to scrape off a victory for both our squads. Fran ended up playing goalie for the entire game. I started on the bench for most of the first quarter, but I was subbed in and stayed in for the remaining first and most of the second quarter. I did not play any of the third quarter, but I went in during the last five minutes of the fourth. I had been using my right hand the entire game and when the opportunity arose, I fired off a shot with my left. It was enough of a surprise that I was able to score in the remaining minute and we won, 5-4.

After the game, we did our usual victory meal at In-and-Out. It was while we were eating that Chuck had raised his arm next to Fran's and said, "Damn girl, you are going to end up as dark as me. Mom's going to freak the next time she sees ya."

Fran's skin had gone from milky white to tomato red and was now currently a healthy bronze. She grinned and agreed that Chuck's mom was going to freak that her baby white daughter was turning black.

"So your parents know each other?" I asked.

They looked surprised at this question. They thought they had told me already and when they explained, it I could tell they told it often because they had a pattern set. Chad started it off.

"Okay, I think I told you how we have the same last name and even share the same birthday. What I guess I forgot to tell you was that we were both born at the same hospital. What's even freakier is that my mother's name is Moesha and Fran's is Margaret."

Fran continued, "So both our parents are in the same hospital but my mom is in Room 114 and Chuck's mom is in 119. They would list the names on the doors of the rooms with the first initial and last name. It turns out that they also did that with the armbands on the baby along with the room number."

Chuck tagged in and said, "Well, whoever was doing the labeling must have had sloppy handwriting because it was a couple of times that the wrong baby was brought to the wrong mother. They tried to give me to Fran's mom at least twice even after she kept insisting she had a white daughter. I guess they thought she was in denial or something."

"At least you got past the doorway. The nurse would walk into Chuck's mom's room, look at her, look at me, then look at her, and turn around and leave."

"At the time, our parents didn't think much of it, just some confused nurses or something. It wasn't until we began kindergarten and came home talking about some other kid with the same last name and same birthday that they finally realized what was going on five years earlier."

"So our parents decided that it would be a good idea to meet and they hit it off instantly. They became great friends and when a neighbor had told my mom that they were thinking of moving, she told Chuck's mom since she knew she had wanted to stop renting and buy an actual home."

"Anyhow, they would take turns babysitting us and we really raised more like brother and sister than friends. Heck, whenever Fran would act up, her mom would tell her that the hospital must have made a mistake and that I was her actual child. The same would go for me, my mom would tell me that Fran must be her child because her child would never be as stupid as I was."

"Every birthday the six of us would go out for a birthday dinner. Talk about strange looks from other diners when they would see a cake brought out saying 'Johnson Twins' and brought to our table."

Traci said, "Wow, it's like that episode from 'The Dick Van Dyke" show."

"It's our parent's favorite episode," Fran and Chuck replied in perfect unison.

Traci, Lori, and I broke into laughter over that. It seems that not only had they had their story down pat, they must get that response a lot. I had no idea what "The Dick Van Dyke" show was, but swore I would look into it.

Chuck and I received some rolled eyeballs as we shifted the conversation towards anime. The site that the anime club had used to acquire the raws for the fansub project had gone down. It appeared that mirKx was no more so for the past few days we had scrambled for an alternative website. Chuck told me that it appeared that Tokyo Toshokan looked like a site that could suit our needs and wrote down the address on a napkin. Traci thought it was silly that I had been so worked up over the lost of a simple website. I patiently explained that I could either spend three hours a night going through different websites finding stuff I wanted to download or fifteen minutes a night doing that and the rest of my time with her. She changed the subject by asking Chuck what had happened to his buns.

"Why, you like my sexy ass?" he asked Traci.

After we got done laughing, Chuck explained to her that he had ordered his Double-Double 'Protein Style' which was code for replacing the buns with lettuce. When Fran pressed him why he did not get his usual 4X4, and she let out an exaggerated gasp when he said he was not hungry. Fran explained to us that she had never known Chuck not to be hungry and that he must be sick or something.

The next day at lunch, Rose informed us that she would be unable to make lunch that Saturday. Everybody assured her it was no big deal, well everybody except Traci.

"Why can't you make us lunch?" asked my inquisitive girlfriend.

"I might not be back in time," answered Rose, clearly not wanting to add anything else.

Traci shot Pollyanna a glance, but the girl merely shrugged. Either Pollyanna did not know what her girlfriend was doing that Saturday morning or she was wise enough not to let Traci know that she knew and have to suffer Traci's questions on the subject.

Saturday morning after we had a light breakfast, Rose had gone upstairs after cleaning up the kitchen and Traci and I were watching some anime on the plasma when the doorbell rung. It was still rather early for Michelle or Pollyanna to show up for lunch so I was rather curious who it might be when I went to answer the door.

"Hi. Is Rose ready?" asked Ruth Bachman, a sophomore, who stood in the doorway.

"I don't know, but I think so. Would you like to come in?" I asked her.

"Sure," replied Ruth, stepping into the foyer.

Since Ruth and I both had English together, I began to ask her what she thought about the book we had been assigned to read when Rose came bounding down the stairs, two at a time. When she reached the bottom, she was slightly breathless, but was able to compose herself.

"Am I dressed okay?" asked a concerned Rose.

Rose was wearing a rather nice sundress that I could not instantly recall her seeing her wearing before. She also had her red mane pulled up in a bun in the back of her head. She did a small turn in front of the two of us.

Ruth chuckled, "You look fine Rose." Ruth then turned to me and said, "I'm sorry that I can't stay and chat, but my parents are waiting for us."

"No worries," I said to Ruth and I turned to Rose, smiled and said, "Don't worry about lunch. We can fend for ourselves."

Rose smiled back and gave me a quick hug, bid Traci and I goodbye and left with Ruth. Traci had gotten up from the couch in the living room and moved to the archway of the foyer to find out what was happening. After Rose had closed the door, my girlfriend had an idea of what was going on.

"Rose is going on a date!"

I chuckled and decided to keep my opinion to myself. If my hunch was right, Rose had taken some of what I had said to heart. I just hoped my friend found whatever she was looking for.

Whenever I had broached the subject of Halloween, the girls that I ate lunch with told me not to worry, they had it covered, and that my costume was taken care of. They refused to tell me anything else about it so I choose not to press them. Since Halloween fell on a Sunday that year, the Friday before we were allowed to wear costumes to school. They had assured me that it not be indecent and that I would like it.

That Friday morning I awoke to find a black tuxedo, cape, top hat, black wig, and mask hanging on the back of the master bathroom door. After I put them on, I headed out into living room to find Rose, Pollyanna, Michelle, Lori, and Traci all standing in a line waiting for me. I greeted them each with a kiss on the cheek.

"Good morning Sailor Mars," I told Rose.

"Good morning Sailor Mercury."

"Good morning Sailor Penis, I mean Venus."

That greeting brought on a fit of giggles. It had been Michelle who pointed out one night that it sounded like Ayaka Komatsu, the actress who played the character that Michelle was dressed as, was saying 'Penis Power' instead of 'Venus Power'. I guess that is why she decided on dressing up like Sailor Venus.

"Good morning Sailor Jupiter," I greeted Lori.

"Good morning Sailor Moon," I said to Traci and instead of a kiss on the cheek, I gave her a long French kiss.

"Good morning Tuxedo Master," they all greeted me in unison after Traci and I had broken our kiss.

I walked over to the foyer and said, "Good morning Mrs. Hunigton," and I gave Pollyanna's mother a kiss on the cheek.

"Morning Chad. Looks like you got yourself quite a collection of sailors," said a grinning Mrs. Hunington.

"And am I to guess that the beautiful woman standing in front of me had something to do with it?"

Mrs. Hunington let out a small snort. "Marge and Pollyanna warned me about you, you are quite the charmer. Yes, I did have a small hand in it. The girls have been coming by our place to work on their costumes. Back when I lived in the commune, I made all my clothes. I still make an occasional dress or two for Polly and me. Now the tuxedo and top hat we ended up getting from a thrift shop. All the wigs we had to buy from a costume shop. The girls were insistent that the hair colors had to be just right."

"You did a fantastic job. You could make a lot of money making costumes like these for certain people."

"Thanks Chad. I had fun making them. It was well worth it just seeing how excited it made the girls."

Mrs. Hunington ended up driving Rose, Michelle and her daughter to school and Lori followed them. We all met up in the parking lot and made our big entrance into the school. A couple of the anime club members saw us and cheered. I swore we had the best costumes in the school and I held that belief until I got to my locker and saw Chuck.

Chuck turned around when he heard me let out a Russian curse. He grinned at a laughing Traci and me and did a little pirouette. I had just about composed myself when Fran arrived. I actually fell to my knees laughing and Traci had to grab my shoulder from joining me on the ground. Standing in front of us were the Johnson twins.

Chuck had applied makeup to lighten his skin to the point where it matched Fran's tan. He wore a blond wig and a baggy sweatshirt, the one that Fran always seemed fond of wearing. Where he differed from his sister's usual apparel was he was wearing a miniskirt and the biggest set of platform boots I had ever seen. They actually made him a foot taller than his usual height.

Fran was wearing black face to match Chuck's usual skin pigment and wore a dreadlock wig. She had on his 'Full Metal Panic' sweatshirt with what I guessed was a pillow or two underneath. While there was nothing she could really do to make herself shorter, it was obvious who she was. When I finally composed myself, I was surprised not as the sight of the two of them did faze many people. I got my answer when John Kawano walked by and commented Traci and me on our costumes. He seemed to be oblivious to Chuck and Fran appearance and I asked him about it.

"Well, I guess it might have been funny the first half dozen times they showed up to school like that. I was told they had been doing that since first grade," he answered.

I looked at the Johnson twins and they were nodding and grinning. Mike continued on, "It gets even more twisted; they attend each other classes and will only answer to their siblings name."

"Last year, I had to be escorted from the boy's locker room," said a grinning 'Chuck'.

'Fran' snorted, "At least you got that far! The girls wouldn't even let me into theirs."

'Fran' then added, "And because of a certain sibling whom I won't name, I had to buy a new pair of stockings because they had to go out and get a tan."

I do not know if it was the image of Chuck shopping around the women's department looking for the right shade of stocking or if it was the idea of Fran dressed up as Chuck being escorted out of the guy's locker room that caused me to break out laughing again, but I did. I could not stop laughing as I saw 'Fran' walk away. I guess wearing twelve inch platforms once a year does not make one an expert.

By lunchtime, not all of the girls had seen Chuck and Fran so I pointed them out. 'Chuck' was eating lunch with the anime group and 'Fran' was hanging out with her usual group. Their friends all took it in stride, treating them as if they were really the sibling that they were pending to be. Lori had joined our table for the day and filled those who did not hear to story about what had happened at the P.E. department the previous year. It turned out that Lori was one of the girls who had to hold back 'Fran' from going into the locker room.

I later found out that the teachers were prepared that year for the Johnson Twins. In every single class they had, they had pop quizzes. It was not bad for Fran because Chuck was an honors student and had aced her quizzes. Chuck on the other hand had to struggle for the rest of the semester to erase the damage his sister did to his class standings.

It was the first Wednesday in November that I thought about staying home sick. I did not get much sleep because I was glued to the television the night before or listening to Air America when the news would not change. I knew in a couple of weeks that I was going to have to stay home sick, so I decided not to press my luck.

It was easy for Rose to detect my sour mood, and she let me eat my breakfast in silence. I kept reviewing what had happened the previous day, and kept drawing the same conclusions. The polls going into the election and the exit polls all said one thing, but the vote count said another. There was a slim chance that the challenger could still win, but it was pretty much certain that the current administration was going to stay in power.

I knew in the past that the CIA had been responsible for influencing elections in some third world countries, sometimes for the sole purpose of commence, but I doubted they were involved in this one. I would have felt more certain that the election had been fair if there was an actual paper trail. It was just too easy to manipulate a machine, especially when the owner of the company of the machine said they would do everything in their power to guarantee a victory for a candidate.

When we rode to school, Traci laid her hand on top of mine. It brought a weak smile to my face as I slipped back into my thoughts. One of the final reasons why I left the CYA was my frustration of having to answer to people who did not seem to have the good of the people on their mind when they made decisions. Twice, both the military and CIA had drawn out plans to capture or assassinate a known terrorist leader, and both times the plan was shot down because it would weaken the nejas position on invading a foreign power.

It was at during lunchtime that word had gotten out that the challenger had conceded. I could not believe more people thought we were better off keeping the same group in power. I decided that it must be easier to be ignorant rather than knowing what was truly going on. I swore right then that I would not listen to Air America and National Public Radio, or even watch the national news again. From now on, I would only get my news from JapanTV and a few of the other international channels. After coming to that conclusion, I seemed to snap out of the funk I was in. I think the girls noticed it because they told me that in four years, all of us would have the power to vote, and we would make sure to use it wisely. The thing was we lived in a state that had overwhelmingly voted for the right person, but I kept my mouth shut. It was better to have hope in the future than wallow in the present.